To see through the eyes of essayist and dramaturge Jan Kott is to gain in knowledge not just of the theater but also of human culture. Since his Shakespeare Our Contemporary appeared in English in 1964, Kott's work has altered--and strengthened--the way critics and the public approach the theater as a whole. The Memory of the Body highlights a number of dramatic personalities and personages: authors and directors Witkiewicz, Brecht, Kantor, Grotoswki, Ingmar Bergman, Wedekind; Tilly Newes on the stage in turn-of-the-century Vienna; the all-too-mortal, two-thirds divine Gilgamesh; and a shaman in rural Korea. In a style flecked with passion, poignancy, and wit, Kott moves beyond a mere discussion of theater to speak of eroticism, painting, love, and death.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Jan Kott, formerly professor of literature at the University of Warsaw, left Poland for the United States in 1966. He has taught at Yale, the University of California at Berkeley, and the State University of New York at Stony Brook, as well as overseas in Japan, at the Catholic University at Louvain in Belgium, and at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. In 1964 he received the Herder Award in Vienna, and in 1984 the George Jean Nathan Award for Dramatic Criticism. His other books include The Theater of Essence, The Bottom Translation, The Eating of the Gods, and Four Decades of Polish Essays (editor), all published by Northwestern University Press.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Acknowledgments

Part I
The Dramaturge
A Lesson in Directing
Simulators
The Voice of Cassandra: On Stempowski
Lec and His Aphorisms
On Bombrowicz and Schulz
Kantor's Kaddish
Kantor, Memory, Mémoire (1915-90)
Mrozek's Emigrés
Grotowski, or The Limit

Part II
A Short Treatise on Eroticism
Aloe
A Short Treatise on Dying
The Sexual Triangle
In the Kitchen of a Shamaness
The Heart Attack
The Memory of the Body

Part III
Gilgamesh or Mortality

Index

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To see through the eyes of essayist and dramaturge Jan Kott is to gain in knowledge not just of the theater but also of human culture. Since his Shakespeare Our Contemporary appeared in English in 1964, Kott's work has altered--and strengthened--the way critics and the public approach the theater as a whole. The Memory of the Body highlights a number of dramatic personalities and personages: authors and directors Witkiewicz, Brecht, Kantor, Grotoswki, Ingmar Bergman, Wedekind; Tilly Newes on the stage in turn-of-the-century Vienna; the all-too-mortal, two-thirds divine Gilgamesh; and a shaman in rural Korea. In a style flecked with passion, poignancy, and wit, Kott moves beyond a mere discussion of theater to speak of eroticism, painting, love, and death.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Jan Kott, formerly professor of literature at the University of Warsaw, left Poland for the United States in 1966. He has taught at Yale, the University of California at Berkeley, and the State University of New York at Stony Brook, as well as overseas in Japan, at the Catholic University at Louvain in Belgium, and at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. In 1964 he received the Herder Award in Vienna, and in 1984 the George Jean Nathan Award for Dramatic Criticism. His other books include The Theater of Essence, The Bottom Translation, The Eating of the Gods, and Four Decades of Polish Essays (editor), all published by Northwestern University Press.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Acknowledgments

Part I
The Dramaturge
A Lesson in Directing
Simulators
The Voice of Cassandra: On Stempowski
Lec and His Aphorisms
On Bombrowicz and Schulz
Kantor's Kaddish
Kantor, Memory, Mémoire (1915-90)
Mrozek's Emigrés
Grotowski, or The Limit

Part II
A Short Treatise on Eroticism
Aloe
A Short Treatise on Dying
The Sexual Triangle
In the Kitchen of a Shamaness
The Heart Attack
The Memory of the Body

Part III
Gilgamesh or Mortality

Index

REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE

If you are a student who has a disability that prevents you
from using this book in printed form, BiblioVault may be able to supply you
with an electronic file for alternative access.

Please have the disability coordinator at your school fill out this form.